Topcon Corporation celebrated its 80thanniversary on September 1. The Tokyo-based global company was founded in 1932 for the manufacturing of surveying instruments, binoculars and cameras.

In this Issue of Farm Equipment Magazine: September 2012 SOURCEBOOK

Since much of what we're reading these days is about the drought of 2012 and its impact on commodity prices and ultimately its effect on food prices, I am reminded of the risk-reward tradeoff I learned about back in my college days. It makes me wonder why no one pays much attention to the risk? side of the equation. According to the risk-return tradeoff, you must spend money to make money. Or more correctly, it says reinvested money can render higher profits only if it is subject to the possibility of being lost.?

Whether it's too wet, too dry or perfect for producing a bumper harvest, weather is a front-of-mind issue every growing season for anyone and everyone involved in agriculture. Every farmer, rancher, farm equipment dealer, ag equipment manufacturer and commodity trader frets and/or rejoices about the weather every growing season. When it comes to emotions and farming, there's not a lot of in-between.

When discussing weather, water is often the main topic. In the upcoming volatile years, the question is how to deal with both too much and too little water. Crop water demand may even be increasing with or without drought. A few trends are really clear. There is increased frequency of high temperature stress, more rain in heavy rainfall events across the U.S. ironically with more summer droughts. Because growing seasons are longer with higher summer temperatures. more water is needed, says David Wolfe, Cornell professor of plant and soil ecology.

As many U.S. senior citizens have learned about health insurance, Federal Medicare benefits help, but it's only a start in covering the big? costs involved with medical care. Most find that supplemental insurance is a must. Farmers are finding the same is true with Federal crop insurance. In a really bad year -- or even just a challenging year -- supplemental weather insurance can mean the difference between staying afloat and actually sailing all the way to the bank.

The combination of biotech traits, genetics and agronomic practices all work together to help mitigate drought risk, according to Chan Mazour, director of Monsanto's Gothenburg Water Utilization Learning Center. "Something like 90% of the country will experience drought at some point during the growing season,"? he says. "If I was a farmer, my strategy would be to make every good decision I can from genetics, biotech and an agronomic standpoint to protect myself as much as possible if drought sets in."

It's 8 a.m.; do you know where your trucks are? After real estate, a dealership's largest non-inventory asset is likely their rolling stock: delivery flatbeds and lo-boys, remote service vehicles, sales personnel cars or trucks, delivery vans, etc. But land and buildings stays put. Your rolling stock ... well, it rolls.

While next month's column will continue to explore compensation systems for salespersonnel, the focus of this column will address those winning attributes that were personified by each of the Olympic athletes as they participated in their individual and team events during the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, England. Whether Michael Phelps, Usain Bolt, the U.S. women's soccer team, or any of the other hundreds of participants, four attributes emblematic of gold (Au) medal play stood out; namely, purpose, passion, perseverance and pride, and each of those attributes are similarly applicable to a successful career in equipment sales.